GARDEN VARIETY SHOW : AGRI-CULTURE

Saturday, Feb 25th.

N.N.S. B/W S.A.G.E. Present:
Garden Variety Show!

Performing:

Rich Quick

Mr Fickle & Yehudah Nabiy w/ DJ King Islam

Omega Ice

Skrewtape

Black collar biz

Yasin

Willie Dynamite

Moe Fit

King don

Jynxx Kilah

+The Open Mic Cipher!
Featuring Beats By Divine Drummah and Gov Mattic.

Hosted By Edobeci

DJ's J. Gainey DJ Ahmad on the wheels!


Doors Open 9pm

$5

"SOCIALIZM"

Join us on March 2, 2012 at 7pm for Trenton Social's monthly FIRST FRIDAY who this month will be honoring the amazingly multi-talented, very unique and Trenton's own, Will "KASSO" Condry!

KASSO as he is popularly known excells and is known most for his unique portraits and vivid aerosol based murals which are located throughout the city of Trenton and across the east coast. Will has participated in numerous non-profit organizations and has been commissioned to produce fine art for celebrities and avid art collectors. He also teaches art in after school programs for our areas young who show creative talent and interest and is the host of "The Garden Variety Show" at The Trenton Atelier where artists and musicians come together and create masterpieces!!

For the past few months EVERY Thursday Will has been putting in lots of time, concentration, paint strokes, sweat and open arms to ANYONE who has came into Trenton Social and who has asked to be a part of his live art sessions. He would photograph either 1, 2 and sometimes 3 individuals at a time and produce them in his vision in usually 4 hour time periods! Over the past few months he has produced numerous "outposts" that will ALL be hung up March 2! Now that is a dedicated and true artist!

Will "KASSO" Condry is a TRUE DEDICATED and ORIGINAL artist! I have had the pleasure of being painted by him twice and working with him on various projects! Some of his outposts are ALREADY sold so YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS THIS EVENT!!! It's going to be PACKED! Free to attend! Bring anyone!

-Valentinas Vanity(curator)

MLK Day of Service

The Bonner Center at TCNJ asked me would I be interested in working with my former high school during the MLK Day of service lead by the community service organization "Jersey Cares"
www.jerseycares.org/. The day would consist of graffiti cleanup and mural restorations at the school. I was asked to to design 4 mini murals which were painted by volunteers of Jersey Cares and students and faculty of TCHS and The Bonner Center. Each mural was designed with the intent to inspire peace...hence the imaginary of the Doves. Below each Dove is a quote by Trenton Central Alum Shawn Carter, better known as JAY-Z, influential Hip Hop artist, music mogul and business man.

It was a great time and the community support was awe inspiring. Thanks to the Bonner Center for the opportunity to give back to my alma mater. I'm looking forward to doing more events like this in the near future!

-WILL KASSO


"Jersey Cares" volenteers painting the "Dove" murals I designed




Finished product

SELF TAUGHT

First blog post of the new year! Been slacking somewhat on the write ups and such...getting things in order for 2012 can be taxing, but no worries. Luv1 and myself produced our first wall of the new year earlier this week. We decided to set our sights on an abandoned building on the north side of Trenton.

We had no set plans...we just wanted to shake the dust off and take advantage of the unusually mild weather we been having recently.

Luv kicked things off with his abstract works, but this time using a limited pallet and I produced a portrait of a child with my abstract "kasso circles" following after. I also chose, like Luv, to keep my colors limited. Luv had the idea for us to keep most of the raw center block and brick unprimed..to give the production a most rugged feel.

We blazed out the entire wall in 4 hours. Other than the massive mounds of dog feces we had to maneuver threw..and I mean MASSIVE AMOUNTS, we had a great time producing this wall.

Special thanks to Shawn of CALI BOUND PRODUCTIONS for documenting this project and producing this awesome video! Check it out:


Peace.

-KASSO

THURSDAY THROWBACK: "CONCRETE ALCHEMY TOUR..2008"

KASSO and DELVE..along with 13 other artist from the east and west coast were apart of an aersol artists tour called CONCRETE ALCHEMY sponsored by "Albus Cavus". For two weeks in the spring of 2008, these artists painted 4 large scale murals in 6 days...coinsiding with 3 gallery shows, which spread from NY to Maryland. All of the artwork for the gallery shows was also done on tour.


The integrated methods of S.A.G.E. Collective were seeded on this tour. All the walls were fully integrated and multi layered. SAGE collective philosophy about the intuitive creative process also was founded within "Concrete Alchemy".

For more info about the tour, follow these links and check out the video:

Photos of all the walls produced via ARTCRIMES: www.graffiti.org/ca/index.html

CONCRETE ALCHEMY INTERVIEWS:
www.albuscav.us/concretealchemy/

CONCRETE ALCHEMY VIDEO:

Rocking Out

This past sunday, Luv-One and myself took a trek threw the woods of rural New Jersey to..drumroll...PAINT ROCKS! I know..sounds a bit weird. Luv contacted me earlier within that week to ask if I would like to join him on his nature adventure. At first I was like...paint a rock?! We should rock a wall! Then he told me that some of the rocks were as big as five feet wide! When I heard that...I was like "Yooooo, this can be great!" Lets do it!" If I cant paint a wall...then a wall size rock sounds pretty interesting!

Luv paints these quirky lil' characters. He's been doing them for years on canvas and other materials. I believe he said most of the inspiration for these characters comes from his son's drawings and that the two of them do this all the time simply because it's fun! So thats was the idea for the day; to paint a rock or two and keep it fun...like a child would. While we were out there painting, I at first thought this was a bit juvenile, but once u do your first one it becomes an instant addiction...u want to do more!

You want to find the rock with the most character...the most personality...and bring it to life! What I thought would at first be a waste of time, became a time I would never forget! What we were doing was reliving our childhood. Taking nature and turning it into art! Using what's there to create something new! I swear, it was like being 10 years old again. We were adding "character" to nature; giving it a personality..and making it our own. It made you wanna seek out new "rocky" terrane, while at the same time taking in the beauty of the breathtaking country side. In doing what we did, it made us appreciate the beauty of nature even more so than before. We both agreed that this day was something epic..even if just for us. It literally planted the seed of new ideas and possibilities! It made me see that sometimes you have to strip layers away and revile whats inside to find something new. It showed me not to judge a situation buy what's only on the surface, and if you want something of value, you have to seek it and dig for it. We sought and found....and who would have thought a rock in a hard place would move creative mountains! You cant spell "nature" without A....R....T!

Checkout the pics below to what we "rocked out".

Peace.

-Will Kasso


KASSO


LUV1


KASSO


LUV1


KASSO


LUV1

Thrusday Throwback: "BORN WITH LESS"...2009

This wall was produced in early February, 2009. S. A. G. E. was still in its infancy as a crew...pretty much just consisting of myself and LUV1. LUV contacted me that morning asking if I was willing to come out and paint. It was an unusual day for the middle of the winter. We had a freak 70 degree day! We decided to jam out at Terracycle and do something small and non ambitious.

What started out as something with the intentions on being light heart quickly grew into a full blown mini-mural jam session. LUV had some references from newspapers and one in particular stuck out to me. It was an image of a young woman holding her son during "Hurricane Katrina".


I choose to do a representation of it while LUV painted an image of Hip Hop icon "Lauren Hill".



As usual, we jammed out the background with our abstract works...which at the time we were still developing. We also had very lil paint to work with due to it being the off season. This wall was literally done with scraps of paint.

Half way threw LUV had to leave to pick up his kid from school, so I decided to stay to finish up the wall. While I was finishing up, the rap song "Smile" by Tupac and Scarface kept playing in my head. Ever since I saw that pic from the hurricane, I couldn't get it out of my mind. So i went back to the beginning of the wall and put a quote up from that record....part of Tupac's verse which reads "Born with less but your still precious". I figured it summed up the feeling of what the image(the mother and child) conveys.


After the quote went up, it started to rain, so i broke out and went home. It was good times none the less.

For those who havent heard the song SMILE...check out the video below.

peace.
-KASSO

Social School of Funk & Soul

Get an audio education in Funk & Soul at Trenton Social!

DJ Tangency spins a musical history lesson of the best Funk and Soul. Find out where those fresh and funky samples you hear in today's Pop and R&B songs originated! The night also features live painting by WILL KASSO!

www.facebook.com/Tangency

NO COVER ... GREAT FOOD ... SO GET ON THE GOOD FOOT AND GET ON UP TO SOCIAL!

Thursday Throwback: AFRIKA/BAMBAATAA MURAL

I figured I'd take it back a few years and showcase one of our first sanctioned murals. I remember this one very well. The day before this one was produced, myself, Leon Rainbow, and Demer of "Vicious Styles Crew" were featured on the TV show "AMERICAS GOT TALENT". To make a long story short, that entire process was not what I expected and I left in a not so great mood.

The following day, LUV ONE and myself planned on doing this wall. This time we were joined by my friend and fellow artist "Frances N. Bradley". Frances had been in contact with me for some time prior to this wall. She wanted to learn the art of spray painting and I welcomed her to join us on this wall. LUV and myself were accustomed to working very intuitively and spontaneous, and with Frances being a solid fine artist and illustrator, I told her the best way to learn spray paint is on the spot. I told her not to worry about mistakes(she was a bit nervous being her first time working with the medium)...because working with us, u wont make any.

The only drawback was the weather. It was raining pretty much the entire day, but the store front had an oning that gave us protection from the elements.

Luv-One brought a image of Hip Hop pioneer Afrika Bambaataa to produce. I brought an photograph of a West African Princess and Frances brought references of different patters and photographs relating to Africa.

We started off painting in the same way we continue to paint today...very loose and free-form with the portraits to balance out the abstraction. After about 4 hours, LUV had to leave to pick up his son and Frances had to leave not much after. This left the wall half way finished. I decided to finish up the wall myself and to use the anger and frustration from the previous night on "Americas Got Talent" to energize me.

Around 9pm that night I finished off the wall. 10-12 hours of non stop painting. Needless to say, I was pretty beat, but felt great to have wrapped up this project and to get over my "AGT" meltdown.

LUV also produced one of his first videos off of this mural...check it out below.

Happy Thanksgiving!

-Will Kasso

"ILLUSTRIOUS"

LUV1 and KASSO are apart of a group art show centered around illustrations; showing at Guerilla Galleries in Newark, NJ. The show opens November 11th! For more info, check out guerilla galleries site: www.gugaart.com

CHANGE GON' COME...2011

The other day I get a phone call from my homie ENOS telling me my GANDHI mural was defaced. I was like "nah, your kidding...that wall has been running over 3 years?! Who would take it out?". He told me he was serious and to drive by there and check it out. Low in behold, I drive up to the wall, and it splattered with white house paint..with a large portion of the face gone. I started to think who would do such a thing. I have no beef on the streets with anyone...at least not to my knowledge. And if someone were beefing with me...they should have at least left their name...any graffiti cat would of done that...so I ruled that factor out. Then I thought it may have been someone who would of had a problem with Gandhi himself(I had a wall vandalized before because it went against a community religious beliefs). But the question remained...after 3 years who would do this?

That wall...out of every wall I produced held the most esteem with me. It was the first wall I produce without sanction during the daylight hours www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiOooVl-pKE. This was the wall that literally put into motion the entire idea of SAGE Collective and our philosophy. I took major risks to put this wall up and it is one of the few I wanted to keep in tact no matter what. Massive amounts of energy was put forth to make sure that wall went up..and stayed up.

The following day. I got together with LUV-1 to redo the wall. We originally had another location set up, but due to the circumstances, decided to shift our attention to restoring this mural. After about one and a half hours of painting, this weird dude approached us and started taking pics of us with his phone and would then run off. We brushed it off as nothing...but I knew the dude..he lived in the arts building just across the way. I then took a break and ran to the store to get water. When I came back, LUV told me dude said he messed up the wall and he was calling the cops on us. I was like "WHAT THE FUCK?"...Whats this dudes deal?!" I knew him from the arts building...and also knows he is a lil' "touched" mentally..so I again brushed it off as craziness.

About ten minutes later, The cops show up. LUV and myself stop painting to see what the problem is. The officer came over to us..told us we were good and that the dude who called them is a lil crazy and they have been getting complaints about him for sometime. We told him that we were restoring the old mural that was up here because someone vandalized it. The officer then looked at us...shook his head in disbelief...saying: "Shame, this wall was up for years...who would do such a thing". We told him we had an idea, but was not certain and had no proof, but in any event, its getting a makeover.

Over the next 3-4 hours LUV and myself tooled away at the wall. LUV worked his usual abstract expressionistic designs throughout the background and I focused on the figure of Ghandi. The funny thing is the first time I did this wall, their was an unbelievable amount of stress involved...this time...smooth sailing. LUV and myself jammed out and we produced something we are truly proud of. I have been trying to figure out what does all this mean. And one conclusion I came to realize is its simply growth. This wall was first done alone...with no set plan...no true direction as to what may come. This time, It was a team effort..and in my opinion, a better over all mural. It started off as a risky gamble and turn into a major success.

We finished up, took pics and talked about how smooth the day was and about the unbelievable odor of piss in the alley where we were painting. LUV asked me did I think dude would take it out again. I said "nah, I don't think so...dude is a lil schizo...I believe its isolated. To rough him up or anything of violents is not necessary for someone like that...he's in his own private hell". But if it does happen again...I know where he lives.

Check out the amazing video produced by LUV-ONE of the days proceedings...peace. -Will Kasso

KASSO IN LONDON, ENGLAND

I recently was sponsored to go to London for a few days. Man, it was like hitting the lottery! A company that is related to the arts, that I have been loosely working with over the past year, asked me to be apart of a unique focus group for the development of a new product. Im not at liberty to go any further in my description due to my signing of a disclosure agreement. In any event, it was the opportunity of a lifetime.

The draw back is that I only had a few days in London, but I did have one full day to explore the sights and sounds of Europe's "New York City". I ate traditional foods like "fish and chips" and the "full english breakfast"...and did mostly touristy stuff like see "big ben" and "Buckingham palace".

The following day was all work. Myself and some local graffiti artist took part in the focus group. Toward the end of the sessions, I convinced some of the higher ups to let me rock a wall at their factory. They set me up with a wall...primed and ready to go. It was on the small side...but with only a few hours to paint...ended up being the prefect size.

After I finished painting, a few of the young ladies from the office took me out for dinner and drinks...a great way to cap off a few, but exciting days abroad!

-Will Kasso

Urban Arts Festival in New Brunswick, NJ

KASSO, LUV, LANK, AJA at the Urban Arts Festival in New Brunswick, NJ.  Big ups the State Theater for having us out.  Big ups Albus Cavus who we were out there reppin'.  Check the video...

Throwback Video Arthur Ashe mural

SAGE Collective's Arthur Ashe Mural from luv1 on Vimeo.

Since we just spent a great evening at the Westin in Princeton for the NJTL of Trenton Fundraiser, and saw this mural up close in person again after a year n a half, here's the original video.  The image is used on everything NJTL does it seems.  At the gala last week alone I must have seen it reproduced a couple hundred times on different materials.  It was published in Mercer Business News magazine and in a couple tennis magazines.  Never would have thought I'd be seeing it so much after painting it, glad I like it!  Thanks again Rob!

Mural tour with students from Rider University

Today I gave a tour of the murals in Trenton to students from the Sociology Department of Rider University. It was a great time...going around the city looking at some walls I myself haven't seen in a while. We started off at Terracycle; where various graffiti and street artist from all over the East Coast frequent and were graffiti classes are also held. From there, we proceeded to several walls through out the city. We all had a great time and Im looking forward to doing more of these tours in the near future. Below is a link to a slide show complied by Professor James Dicikinson of the Sociology Department...enjoy!

peace.
-KASSO

picasaweb.google.com/murgatroyd47/SociologyClubTrentonMur...

Back in Business!

Luv-one and myself collabed on our first wall of the season. Felt good to get out and rock a wall again after a long and bitterly cold winter! We decide to go abstract full tilt with this one. Good times and more to come!

-Will Kasso

S.A.G.E. published in Utrecht Catalog!

Our mural entitled "Highland Sentinel" was recently published in the latest Utrecht Art Supply catalog. This is a huge honor and we are very appreciative to have our work featured! If you take a look to the left hand side of the page, there is an image of crew member LANK doing a demo with the new Montana Gold line!

Visit Utrecht art online for more info:
www.utrechtart.com/

Kasso's Installations at "Inheritance" in Newark

This was a lot of fun to produce. I painted two interior murals for the exhibit. I kept my subject matter within the context of the shows theme. With the title of the show being INHERITANCE, I decided to paint a mural in honor of my family...since without them, I would not be producing art.

The first mural started off with an image of my late father and ended with an image of my mother.

The second mural is an image of my five year old niece looking up to the sky with the saying "REACH THE WORLD BUT TOUCH THE HOOD FIRST over top of her head. To the fair top right, a bird is flying over into the sunset.

The installation represents the last 5 years of my life; starting with the death of my father and ends with the birth of my niece(who was born two weeks before he, my father, passed). The piler that bares my niece image in positioned at the front of the gallery, so the entire mural production begins with her.

The secondary imagery within the mural is a play on my mental state during this time...a lot of confusion and emotion...with more clarity as time passes.

The entire installation took two 10 hour days to produce. I was treated with the utmost respect and hospitality from Stan and Christine Sudol, owners of Guerilla Galleries, and special thanks to Jerry's Artist Outlet www.jerrysartistoutlet.com/, Golden acrylics www.goldenpaints.com/ and Montana Cans www.montana-cans.com/ for sponsoring my murals...an all around awesome time!

For more visuals from the show, check out Guerilla Galleries website:

www.gugaart.com/InheritanceGallery/inheritance_gallery.html

Peace.
-Will Kasso

Promo vid for KASSO's "INHERITANCE" Mural Installation....Guerilla Galleries, 2011

S.A.G.E. COLLECTIVE

The faces behind the collective...